"We put ourselves too much at fault"

How do you like this game?

"The same as yours. In the first half, we're 16-9 and we didn't get into the game very well. What's more, we're taking a hat-trick, on a zero pass try. On a camp outing. On a dismissal. Afterwards, I find that we react well in the second half. We do almost the hardest part, because we pass in front again at 23-19 for us. They have rather a very good beginning of second half. And then, afterwards, we take penalties. We know the precision of their striker. They pass us again in front. So we still went to seek, with a lot of energy, the draw game. Indeed, we could have won on the last transformation. We would have liked to. But today, over the whole game, I think it's a fair score. Quite logical. (...) If we win, nobody cries foul. But if we lose it, nobody cries foul either. Again, the draw is fair over the whole game. In the first half, it's more like they get the points. And on the second, we come back well. We have a good second half. But we put ourselves too much at fault. "

Do you have any regrets about the way your players approached this match tactically?

"The regret is about the penalty... There was one time, for example, you take a penalty on a scrum break. About 30 metres from our line. We hadn't anticipated that. After that, it's in the running game. I don't have much to blame them for. We're annoyed on this return where unfortunately we don't catch the ball and we take a try cap. Afterwards, in the second half, we were much less exposed. We played a lot more with our feet. But that did not prevent us from taking points at the foot. They score one try, we score three. But we still took points with our feet in the second half. We were whistled at a lot. I don't have the penalty figures yet. But we're still taking too many penalties today. Clearly. It's a bit of a black spot. The black spot too, it's on our defensive back. Because we've taken 13 points on our cross-cuts. The trial, transformed. Plus two times three points when we left home. We didn't leave home very well. In the future, we'll have to get out of our house much better. Knowing that in the ruck areas, it whistles quickly. It is necessary to be vigilant. "

You could feel the players lost by some of the referee's decisions. Was that also the case for you?

"I won't comment on the number of penalties we took. We're going to have to rectify that. I'm thinking of doing a big zoom this week on our ground game. See how we can improve things. That's a first thing. Then, once again, with the new rules, the referees who whistle very quickly and don't favour the attackers too much, for the moment, maybe tactically, to play a little bit differently. "

What did you tell your players at the break?

"First, don't panic. 16-9. To put a lot more effort into it. That's what we did. It still gave us opportunities. That was the key word. To put a little more occupation. And then they were very aggressive on the ground play. They put their hands in often. Everywhere. The referee could whistle from either side. And we didn't really know where he was going to whistle. To avoid taking risks, we decided to bring the structures closer together. With much closer support. To be less bothered at that level. That's more what they did. They respected the instructions at that level rather well. We didn't take any more risks in our camp, we immediately got back on our feet. That gave us back recovery balls. And it gave us situations thanks to that. "

To finish this first block, you will go to Béziers, under pressure?

"The block will not be totally finished, even if we win in Béziers. It won't be totally satisfactory. But it is absolutely necessary that we begin our season, in particular outside in Béziers. We didn't start it in Aurillac, we have to start it in Béziers. Our season outside. I felt the boys touched this evening. I do not feel them distraught either. They really want to raise their heads. We are going to work this week. We have a short week. And we have to go to Béziers to get something so that we are in a rather good block. If we win in Béziers, we're going to come out with 10 points. It's not crazy over four games. Two away games, two home games. That would still allow us to save the block a little bit. Today, it is not a good block, clearly, since we took zero points in Aurillac. And we're losing two points at home. Today, the block is not good. "